Chlorine dioxide has been used to kill biological contaminants such as microorganisms, mold, fungi, yeast and bacteria in water and on surfaces. Chlorine dioxide in solution has recently been used to disinfect raw agricultural commodities (RACs) rinse waters. The primary disinfection by-products of water disinfection using chlorine dioxide have been chlorate and chlorite ions. Because of concern about chlorite, chlorate and also perchlorate ions, governmental regulations require that RACs rinsed in water treated with chlorine dioxide must be rinsed with potable water to remove any of these residues. Additionally, chlorine dioxide in rinse water solutions offer little removal of organisms on the surfaces of RACs.
Therefore, there is a need for a method of treating objects such as RACs with chlorine dioxide where undesirable by-products are minimized while sufficiently treating bacteria on the surface of RACs.